May’s Playlist To Make Running Suck Less!

This month’s hand-plucked and running-tested 75-85/150-170 BPM playlist is brought to you in part by Pitchfork’s Top 200 Tracks of the 90s list, plus a few picks from Spotify’s handy New Music Tuesdays playlist, plus the usual smattering of other special nice running time, metronome-tastic tracks.

As a sidenote: for those who run to the beat of their own drum rather than requiring external pace setting, our compadre @samglover tipped us off to Spotify’s announcement this month of a fancy new feature that picks/plays tracks according to how fast you’re running.

Cool story. But we know if we personally let Spotify choose music based on whatever pace we happen to be running if left to our own devices, well – it would be nothing but Sarah McLachlan, Adele and Josh Groban for miles and miles. We might never run again, let alone with a pace faster than a zombie shuffle. Anyway, we digress.

Speaking of leisurely paces – one might think that The Verve’s “Bitter Sweet Symphony” would be music to sleep to, not run to, but one would be WRONG – 171 BPM. Keeping The Verve company from Pitchfork’s Top 200 Tracks of the 90s playlist are the Foo Fighters and Beck. We never seem to remember much good coming out of the 90s musically, it’s all Spice Girls, that one song by the Cardigans, and that other song by Soul Asylum as far as we recall. So thanks Pitchfork – buk-buk!

Aw – just look at that adorable 90’s Dave Grohl. Which then makes us think of that punching-before-eating Andy Sandburg sketch where Grohl also makes an appearance:

New stuff from Spotify’s New Music Tuesday’s playlist this month includes “California Roll”1, “High,” “Lane Boy,” “Backsell,” “Fu**ed Up”2, “Come Back To Me” and “Good Morning Mr. Wolf.” That latter-most is some odd duck lovechild of Adele’s “Someone Like You” and Ozzy Osbourne’s “No More Tears.” Like – not entirely, but we bet you a peanut-butter sammich you’ll pick up what we’re putting down. And we will say it totally works somehow! And for playing along – here’s some throw-back bad recorded-from-MTV vid of “No More Tears”: